With the end of 2023 fast approaching, now is the time to review and evaluate your clients’ security and make recommendations on what can be changed or added to address increasing risk factors. By having open, ongoing conversations with your clients, you can secure their corporate alignments on the most effective strategies and highlight necessary cybersecurity investments to support them. Here are three key security conversations you should have with your clients right now:

1.     Do you have a modern IT infrastructure in place to support future security needs?

Many companies equate investing in “best of breed” cybersecurity solutions with strengthening their security postures. However, what they often fail to do is upgrade their overall IT infrastructure or modernize their approach to software development. This is like building a house on a faulty foundation. As your clients’ trusted advisor, you must educate them on the need for continued investments in IT modernization, or risk being exposed to more frequent and damaging cyber threats.

Before your clients invest in another point solution, share Fortinet’s checklist that provides 10 questions to ask when considering a cybersecurity investment. 

2.     Is your team prepared to respond to a cyberattack?

Your clients’ employees can either be their biggest cyber defender or their biggest risk to cyber threats. Explain to your clients that everyone in their organization is a high-value target for threat actors. 

In addition to developing and updating your clients’ incident response plans (they do have those, right?), consider offering a “refresher” course on security awareness for your clients. Fortinet’s Security Awareness Training helps IT, security and compliance leaders build a cyber-aware culture where employees recognize and avoid falling victim to cyberattacks.

3.     Are you up-to-date on your threat assessment?

Cybercriminals are like well-organized modern enterprises, and they are highly skilled in using generative AI to conduct more damaging attacks. For instance, some criminals are using generative AI to create phishing emails that look legitimate and fool even the savviest users. Additionally, some groups are now using cyberextortion techniques, which involve threatening to release employees' personally identifiable information, thereby putting them at risk of identity theft.

Fortinet’s FortiPhish is a phishing simulation service that trains your clients and their employees to recognize and report phishing and other email threats. Fortinet also offers security assessment services to help you identify gaps in incident readiness, develop, update and test playbooks, maximize SOC investments and more

As a trusted security advisor, you should have an ongoing dialogue with your clients. Schedule these security conversations now to ensure that you have the resources and buy-in from your clients to set them up for success.